Five Insurers Form Blockchain Alliance

Five European insurers and reinsurers have formed an alliance to explore blockchain technology in the industry.

Aegon, Allianz, Munich Re, Swiss Re and Zurich announced the Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative B3i this week, with the goal of exploring distributed ledger technologies to help streamline paperwork and reconciliations for insurance contracts, while accelerating cycle times and the ability to audit.

The insurers have agreed to co-produce a pilot project, using anonymized transaction information and anonymized quantitative data, in order to achieve a blockchain proof of concept for inter-group retrocessions. Learnings from this feasibility study,can be used to develop standards and processes for industry-wide blockchain use.

“Blockchain technology shows most of its potential only if it’s applied in a network of peers," says Harald Rosenberger, Head of Innovation at Munich Re, in a statement. "With B3i we are in the position to explore and shape the future use of blockchain and to set the necessary standards for a true digitalization of insurance.”

B3i is open to other insurers and reinsurers who are interested in joining, the organization says.